In the six weeks since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon the mainstream media has flooded theairwaves and newspapers with glib commentary about the nature of Islam and whether or not the Taliban or groups likeAl Queda are authentic Muslims.

The Bush Administration is continuing in its efforts to control media coverage of its so-called war on terrorism,restricting journalists’ access to officials, buying up commercial satellite imagery, and asking the major networksto engage in self-censorship with regards to video from Osama Bin Laden. Meanwhile Bush officials continue tocriticize Al-Jazeera, the CNN of the Arab world, for what U.S. officials say is its biased coverage of...

The five major television news organizations reached a joint agreement yesterday to follow the suggestion of theWhite House and abridge any future videotaped statements from Osama bin Laden or his followers to remove language thegovernment considers inflammatory. The decision is the first time in memory that the networks had agreed to a jointarrangement to limit their prospective news coverage. It was described by one network executive as a...

Last Saturday a man named Abdo Ali Ahmed was shot to death behind the counter of his convenience store in theneighborhood of East Reedley, near Fresno, California. "He is one more victim of the tragedy of September 11," acommunity leader said at Ahmed’s funeral service. Ahmed was part of a community of over 6,000 Yemeni and Jordanianimmigrants who live in California’s Central Valley farm country. Arab-Americans who live...

Local communities across the country have been organizing in small ways to prevent the US from retaliating againstthe attacks of September 11, and also to curb discrimination and attacks against Arab-Americans and those perceivedto be of Arab descent.

The British newspaper, The Guardian, is reporting that the U.S. has delayed airstrikes on Afghanistan, after key countries in the Middle East expressed doubts about allowing their territory to serve as a base for military operations.

Federal agents are targeting Arab students on college campuses as part of their investigation into the Sept. 11terrorist attacks, gathering lists of foreign nationals and combing through files. Investigators began looking atcollege campuses after learning some of the alleged hijackers or their accomplices were in the country on studentvisas. Officials at universities across the country say they have received requests from the FBI.

The detention of some 500 people as part of the FBI investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks, and new legislation thatwould give law enforcement expanded powers, have raised serious concerns for civil rights groups. Their concerns havebeen exacerbated by reports of hundreds of alleged hate crimes against Muslims or those of Middle Eastern descent.